When life hands you lemons...DON'T HIDE THEM!

If you've been keeping up with my little blog here,

then you know that I had a little mishap during my "old age discovery", around the time of my birthday.

Ya see...

what happen was,

my daughter did a no-no in my book, so I punished her from all of her electronic devices.

The laptop.

The iPod.

and...

The cellular phone device.

I was madder than mad.

I may, or may not have had smoke coming out of my ears.

I felt good about the punishment given.

My chest puffed out in triumph for myself as a parent.

I felt victorious!

Then...

the unspeakable happened.

I lost my thoughts somewhere between the punishment and the whole "moving my baby out of the house" ordeal, and the "oh my goodness, I'm about to teach my kids homeschooling and I don't think I'm cut out for this" saga.

I could not find the cell phone!!

Has that ever happened to you?

The things going on around you, mainly your kids,

litterly suck the memory right out of your head!!

I mean,

it's not that I'm old or even close to it.

It's them.

It's all them!

(that's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

So,

there I was,

with my blank memory and no cell phone.

Where in the hoo-ha was it?

I searched high,

and low.

Mainly because, I couldn't remember if I put it high,

or low.

Blank I tell ya!

Completely blank!

I even checked the bill on line, to see if maybe, mistakingly, and really hoping, that someone came into the house and stole it!!  That way, I could claim it as stolen and it wouldn't cost me as much.

Yeh...

no such luck.

The day arrived that the punishment were to end, and my daughter would get all of her life back.

Still...no phone.

I was soon going to have to break down and BUY another phone!!

How did this punishment become about me?

I was sinking in my embarrassment...each and every day that passed.

I prayed.

I may have cried.

I racked my empty brain.

Still,

nothing.

Until...

the other night.

(let me just say before I begin that he is never going to let me live this one down! ehemm.)

Moving on...

My husband brought up the phone issue, because I had mentioined leaving her my phone to go somewhere because she STILL did not have hers, and I STILL did not have any idea where it was.

In his frustration,

he began searching the house.

He asked lots of questions like,

Where did you put it?

(gee, if I knew that she would be holding it by now)

What room did you put it in?

(with much confidence I said, it HAS to be in our bedroom, I would NOT have hid it any where else)

Ehemmm.

Why would you hide it?

What were you thinking?

Really?!

He searched and he searched;

in boxes,

in closets,

in cabinets,

everywhere.

And what was I doing?

Trying to lay in my bed and read my book.

I had given up on searching.

It had been 32 days since the day of punishment.

What was the point?

But, somewhere in the back of my mind, where there was a little tidbit of memory,

I could have sworn I had put it somewhere high.

Mmmm?

I got out of bed and walked into the kitchen, where I grabbed a chair and climbed up on top of the kitchen cabinet.

There were baskets and a couple of pictures.

My eyes grew wide as I looked.

Nope.

Not there either.

Oh well,

I marched back to my room and climbed into bed.

Then I heard his voice,

"Tamara Anne!"

There are only two instances when I hear my name called out like that;

1. when my dad is mad at me

2. when my husband is aggravated with me

This, was #2.

In my most innocent and naive voice I said,

"Huh?"

He asked me to come see him in the kitchen.

This couldn't be good.

He was standing next to the kitchen cabinet that I had just searched.

Uh-oh!

This looks like one of those "he's right" moments where I have to swallow my pride with a glass of "I told you so."

Oi vay.

He motioned for me to stand on the chair and look at the cabinet.

I giggled..

and blushed.

I climbed on top of the chair, and as my body began to straighten up to look above me, I saw it!!

Right in the middle of my two stacks of kitchen plates.

THE CELL PHONE!!

Woohooo!!

I, wanting to celebrate because I knew I had placed it somewhere high, screamed,

"Yay! Woohoo!"

(all the while thinking, I'm not all the way crazy and old, I can unpack my bag for the nursing home now!)

He,

said nothing.

Only handed the cell phone to our daughter.

I jumped down from the chair and said,

"Babe, your the best!  Thank you! Whew!!"

To which he calmly and sternly replied,

"Never, ever, ever hide anything again!!"

As I swallowed the frog in my throat I said,

"Agreed.  Thank you.  Love you."

Food for thought:

When life hands you lemons...

DON"T HIDE THEM!

Ecclesisastes 4:9

Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed.